


Winter Shopping

by Nahterpie



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Rare Pairings, modern-ish AU, this started as a drabble but got out of hand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 18:50:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6021055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nahterpie/pseuds/Nahterpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Selim Bradley is more mature than his years suggest, a product of his strict but loving father, so when he died he took it upon himself to be just like him. He doesn't really have time for childish antics. But when he goes shopping for his mother one day, and bumps into a girl his age brimming with the joy and excitement of being a child, he can't believe he finds himself being caught up in her enthusiasm. Just who is this girl anyway? [Selim/Elicia] [Modern-ish AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Shopping

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as an fma secret santa gift for @l-m-pandora on Tumblr. She has a rare pair otp of Selim/Elicia and I'm always up for a challenge.
> 
> Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me.

It wasn’t overly cold, but Selim still found himself wishing he’d warn gloves. His dark winter coat was thick enough to keep the chill from his body, with one hand warmly nestled in one of its large pockets, but the other was gripping onto a small piece of paper, covered in his mother’s perfect handwriting, and he could barely feel the tips of his fingers.

Their little town was too far south to have any particularly terrible winters; it did snow from time to time but it never stuck to the ground in huge blankets like he had heard it did in the north. His mother told him it had snowed in town that badly once, in the winter before he was born, but that was over sixteen years ago and it had never happened again since. But he was grateful for it, he thought, shivering as the cold wind picked up speed.

Their huge house was just a little way out of town, so it was only a short walk into the main center (though it wasn’t really much more than a few small shops grouped together). He’d been going shopping and doing his mother’s personal errands for as long as he was old enough to make the journey on his own, so he never minded doing it. Every time he offered to go she would decline and tell him one of the staff could do it, but it was something he could do for her that made her happy so he always insisted. He was glad to be able to do something useful like that for her, though it did get harder to stay enthusiastic about going outside as the weather got colder like this.

Selim glanced down at the list in his hand, holding it tight against the wind, and adjusted the brown satchel on his shoulder. The first thing on the list was an easy one; the repair shop was the first on the way.

He entered the cozy building gratefully, a little bell above the door announcing his entry, and put the paper list in his pocket, rubbing his cold hand against the warmer one. He approached the counter, noticing the usual array of clocks on the walls, television sets and engine parts on shelves and various nuts and bolts strewn across every surface, and smiled as a familiar female voice came from the workshop in the back, followed by the sound of clinking tools.

“I’ll be right with you!”

“Don’t rush on my account.” His well-spoken voice answered back, wishing he didn’t sound so formal all the time.

“Selim? Is that you?” More clinking and shuffling. “Ed! Selim’s here!”

He heard the sound of socks thumping down wooden stairs and a blonde man entered the room, a blonde toddler holding tight onto his hand. 

“Selim! Selim!” The little boy squealed, running out from behind the counter. “Look what dad taught me!” He pulled out a paper crane from his back pocket and placed it in Selim’s hand. It was crudely done; some of the folds weren’t very straight, there were corners so forcefully folded they were threatening to rip, and the head was a little too large for the body, but it was the hard work of a child and he smiled warmly at the boy, handing it back to him carefully.

“Wow, impressive work. Maybe you’ll grow up to be just as famous as the great Edward Elric - the best inventor of Amestris!” Selim couldn’t stop the admiration creeping into his words, remembering how much he had loved hearing stories of the inventor when he was younger, when Ed had been working in his father’s town council.

Edward ruffled Selim’s black hair with a chuckle. “Talking about growing up, looks like you’ve been doing some of that, huh.” Selim frowned and tried to push his hand away playfully.

“Must be drinking his milk.” Came a sassy remark from the doorway as Winry entered the room, arms folded across her chest. Ed only groaned in response, moving back behind the counter to give his wife a kiss on the cheek, while their little boy ran back to hold his dad’s hand. Selim watched with a smile, but couldn’t stop the little pang of sorrow that pierced his heart whenever he saw the happy family. No, he had no right to be jealous, he had everything he could ever want, whenever he wanted it. What should he be jealous of? Selim pushed away his darker thoughts as he opened the satchel by his side and pulled out an expensive pocket watch.

“Mother knocked this off the shelf while she was rearranging some of her ornaments. It doesn’t look damaged but the hands aren’t moving anymore - I think it might have dislodged something inside.”

Winry came forward and examined it with an expert eye, turning it over in her hands and putting it to her ear to listen to the mechanism. She pushed some of the screws and bolts out of the way to clear some space, and placed it on the counter top, popping open it’s gold face. Inside was an ornately engraved letter ‘B’ and again Selim felt that familiar pang of sorrow.

“You’re right, it’s perfect on the outside, but I think one of the cogs has come loose. I’ll have to take the back off to look inside, but I promise I’ll take good care of it - I know how much it means to you both.” 

Selim shrugged in an attempt to appear unconcerned by it, but could almost hear his mother’s voice admonishing him for such an uncouth movement. Winry wrote a receipt out on a large note pad and ripped it off with a flourish. “I’ll have it repaired by tomorrow, in case I have to replace any bent parts. But don’t worry, there’s nothing I can’t fix.” She said with a grin. 

\-----

When Selim finally left the shop, waving to the Elric family on his way out, he let out a breath. Getting there was always easy but he forgot how hard leaving was. They had always been like a second family to him; baby-sitting him when he was very young, or taking him to places when mother was busy. Sometimes he had wondered if they did it because they felt sorry for him, since father died when he was only seven. But nobody could doubt the genuine sincerity behind anything Edward and Winry did, and their son was growing to be just like them too. 

His father, and head of the Bradley family had been a tall man with an impressive moustache and an air of supreme authority. He was the town mayor for as long as Selim had been alive, and probably many years before that too (mother got upset when they spoke about him). So he supposed it wasn’t too surprising that Mayor Bradley suffered a fatal heart attack, since he had been getting older but not slowed down at all. Selim still missed him, but he had to pretend he didn’t. It was awful really, since he was now the man in the Bradley family, and it was his job to look after mother, he couldn’t afford to look that weak. Father had never been an overly sentimental man, though nobody could deny he loved his family, so Selim strived to be just the same.

Caught up in his thoughts about his father he didn’t notice the young girl speeding toward him until he heard her shrieks.

“That hair tie! Catch the hair tie!”

Selim jumped and then caught sight of a small pink hair tie rolling down the road, pushed by the cold winter wind, just ahead of him. He reached down quickly and grasped it tight, waiting as the girl caught up with him. She stopped, panting and looked up at him with the brightest smile he had ever seen. She was a little shorter than him, with sandy brown hair tied up into what should have been bunches but only one side was up, with the other half loose around her face, and big forest green eyes. 

“Thanks for saving my hair tie, whew, I thought I was going to have to chase it across town. Teaches me to try and mess with my hair with gloves on.” She was still a little out of breath, but extremely good humoured - especially considering she didn’t even know him. Selim only held out the pink tie, and she reached out to take it from his hand with her gloved one before realising her mistake again and pulled them both off hastily. When she had put them in her pink coat pocket she was finally able to take the little tie, and with one fluid motion pull up the other side of her hair into the matching bunch. The girl’s bushy hair was quite short so it mostly spiked out at the ends of her high bunches, giving it an almost childish style.

“That’s better. Oh, thanks again...” She trailed off with held her hand out toward him, waiting for his name.

He hastily remembered his manners and reached out to shake. “Selim. Selim Bradley.” He had barely finished speaking before the strange girl was shaking his hand vigorously.

“Nice to meet you, Selim. The name’s Elicia Hughes. Wait a sec.... Bradley? As in, Mayor Bradley? You’re his son?” She said with increasing excitement.

Selim could barely keep up. Some strange girl came out of nowhere and was treating him like they were old friends, even though they’d never met before. He was totally unprepared for such a bizarre situation. 

“Oh, uh - nice to meet you too. And yes, the only son of Mayor Bradley.”

“Ahh, I thought you seemed familiar. We met once when we were little, at a birthday party for Uncle Roy.” She smiled, and Selim was aware that she hadn’t let go of his hand yet. He pulled it away and shoved both his hands in his pockets. 

“’Uncle’ Roy? You mean, Mayor Roy?” He raised an eyebrow.

She chuckled, but it was a sweet sound. “Oh yeah, he was my dad’s best friend, I’ve always called him Uncle Roy, even now he’s Mayor it’s a habit I can’t break.” 

Selim knew that Roy Mustang had taken over as Town Mayor after a couple of years of it being Mayor Grumman, his wife’s grandfather. But Grumman was even older than his father had been, and the old man hadn’t been able to keep up with the pace for long. After two older Mayors it was a big difference to have the younger Mustang in charge, and his town council seemed to be the most efficient yet. Though he had some time to prove he could even match the perfection of his father.

Mustang’s best friend.... Selim looked harder at the sandy haired girl, with her wide smile and pretty green eyes, and he did feel a flicker of recognition. 

“Elicia Hughes - your father was Maes Hughes?” He remembered Maes Hughes as one of Mayor Bradley’s senior councillors, handling planning and events, until his accident. Selim hadn’t met him many times, but he had the same air of cheer and... enthusiasm as Elicia, and he remembered meeting them both at a party many years ago. Mother didn’t like him going to many of the functions Mayor Bradley had attended, since they usually interfered with one of his instrument practices, so he hadn’t seen much of Hughes, though he knew he was a good man. 

“Uh-huh. He was the best! Mom says I’m alot like him, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as nice and fun as he was. I try to be though.” Elicia’s voice became quieter and she tightened her bunches, as if by habit, while Selim realised she sounded just like he did; looking up to and trying to emulate the best qualities of her father, even though he was no longer there. He frowned a little and cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Me too.” 

She only smiled in response, understanding a little more about the serious looking black haired boy in front of her. He didn’t elaborate any more than that, but the love for his father was contained in those two words, and she knew exactly how he felt. She could see he was different inside to his somewhat prickly demeanour. 

“Oh, I interrupted you with my runaway hair tie, I bet you were busy before that.” Elicia returned to her previously cheery self and put her gloves back on while Selim finally returned a small smile.

“Not really, I was just doing some errands for my mother. I’ve got a few things to get from a couple of shops.” As if suddenly remembering what he was there for in the first place Selim took out the list, shivering slightly as his warm hand felt the cold wind on it once more.

“Then I’ll help you with it! I’ll come with you, and we’ll do the errands together.”

“What, well-”

“But first, I know this great place called Ling’s that does the best Xingese food in town! You’ve got to let me treat you to lunch to apologise for holding you up.” She reached out and grabbed Selim’s hand, determination and fun lightening her voice. 

“Uh, I’m pretty sure Ling and Lan Fan own the only Xingese restaurant in town.” He managed, as he was pulled along by the excited Elicia, still feeling a little overwhelmed with the strange situation he had found himself in, and surprised that she could navigate between the other shoppers so easily. 

“Come on, Selim!” She called, tightening her grip as she turned to give him one of her wide smiles. He only squeezed her gloved hand in response, finding her enthusiasm infectious and not being able to help the smile that matched hers.


End file.
